Agents retrieve guns in Reno; trial set for felon

Dec. 7, 2012

Willie Ledet in court Thursday Nov. 29, 2011. In a case ori9inally dropped by the U.S. Attorney's office during a right with the ATF but reopened by the Washoe District Attorney he was due to be arraigned but had yet to be appointed an attorney. Marilyn Newton/RGJ / RGJ

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Federal firearms agents retrieved more guns this week from people who purchased them but later failed background checks.

Meanwhile, a judge set a trail date for a convicted felon who was charged in state court after a federal prosecutor dismissed his case.

Both actions were the result of a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation into a yearlong rift between the Reno U.S. Attorney’s office and local agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives.

Over the past year, federal prosecutors in Reno dismissed or refused more than a dozen ATF cases, causing most of Reno’s federal firearms agents to transfer out of Nevada.

When the RGJ reported that Willie Ledet’s case was dismissed during the rift, the Washoe County District Attorney’s office charged him in state court.

Ledet was the target last year of an undercover operation by the Sparks Police Department in which he allegedly sold drugs and a gun to a confidential informant and an ATF agent.

A federal grand jury indicted Ledet on a firearms charge last year but Assistant U.S. Attorney William Reed filed a motion to dismiss his case less than two weeks after the head of the Reno U.S. Attorney’s office sent a letter to local ATF agents saying they would not prosecute ATF cases until unnamed “issues” were resolved.

A Washoe County grand jury indicted Ledet on Oct. 24 on one count of trafficking methamphetamine and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Ledet, 46, “stood silent” during his arraignment this week, so Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer entered a “not guilty” plea for him and set his trial for Feb. 4.

The Nevada U.S. Attorney’s office has declined to reveal the nature of the rift between the two agencies, referring all questions to the U.S. Department of Justice. Questions about the problems were sent again on Friday to the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs but no one responded.

The ATF, however, reacted to the Reno Gazette-Journal investigation into gun retrievals this week by sending a letter to the executive editor saying they did not “conduct prompt investigative reviews” of cases of firearm retrieval cases that were sent to ATF by the Nevada Department of Public Safety.

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When a person buys a firearm, he or she must undergo a background check. In Nevada, the checks are done by the public safety department. If officials don’t complete those checks within three days, the gun sellers are allowed by law to let the person leave with the firearm.

If officials later find a problem in the person’s history that suggests they are prohibited by law from owning a gun, they contact the ATF to investigate further and go retrieve the guns if needed.

Over the past year, officials sent ATF in Reno 45 firearm retrieval letters but they were not investigated because of the rift with federal prosecutors and the absence of agents in Reno.

After the RGJ reported that problem on Nov. 18, ATF officials ordered two agents in Reno to begin working on those cases and collect guns when appropriate.

Special Agent Michael Campbell, an ATF spokesman based in Washington D.C., said that as of Friday, the agents had retrieved guns from four people who were not supposed to own them.

The retrievals involved people who had assault or other felony convictions, he said.

The ATF investigation found seven cases in which further investigation of the background checks found that the people were not prohibited, Campbell said Friday. Those people will be allowed to keep the guns, he said.

The agency has not yet decided whether charges will be filed in the cases involving the retrievals, he said.